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Sunday, March 9, 2014

It's Monday! Getting in the Reading Swing!

I think I'm finally back into the swing of reading. You know how it is, one day you're reading like crazy the next you're taking it easy. Or maybe that's just me. :)Note: DON'T FORGET!!! There is still time to sign up for my giveaway. Don't forget to do so! :)

Last week I FINALLY finished War of the Worlds and you can read my review here.

Goodreads synopsis of The War of the Worlds: Man had not yet learned to fly when H.G. Wells conceived this story of a Martian attack on England. Giant cylinders crash to Earth, disgorging huge, unearthly creatures armed with heat-rays and fighting machines. Amid the boundless destruction they cause, it looks as if the end of the world has come.

I'm also still current listening to on audio book Anthony Trollope's The Warden and I am now a little over halfway through it.

Goodreads synopsis of The Warden: The book centers on the character of Mr. Harding, a clergyman of great personal integrity, whose charitable income far exceeds the purpose for which it was intended. Young John Bold turns his reforming zeal to exposing what he considers to be an abuse of privilege, despite being in love with Mr. Harding's daughter Eleanor. The novel was highly topical as a case regarding the misapplication of church funds was the scandalous subject of contemporary debate. But Trollope uses this specific case to explore and illuminate the universal complexities of human motivation and social morality.

Early last week I started Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Grey. So far I am enjoying it, finding it a very intriguing and though provoking book.

Goodreads synopsis of The Picture of Dorian Grey: The tale of a youth whose features, year after year, retain the same appearance of innocent beauty while the shame of his abhorrent vices becomes mirrored on the features of his portrait.

Later in the week I started J.R.R. Tolkien's The Children of Húrin, which I am enjoying. Pretty much it is for us Tolkien geeks and probably no one else would appreciate it. :)

Goodreads synopsis of The Children of Húrin: Painstakingly restored from Tolkien's manuscripts and presented for the first time as a fully continuous and standalone story, the epic tale of The Children of Hurin will reunite fans of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings with Elves and Men, dragons and Dwarves, eagles and Orcs, and the rich landscape and characters unique to Tolkien. There are tales of Middle-earth from times long before The Lord of the Rings, and the story told in this book is set in the great country that lay beyond the Grey Havens in the West: lands where Treebeard once walked, but which were drowned in the great cataclysm that ended the First Age of the World. In that remote time Morgoth, the first Dark Lord, dwelt in the vast fortress of Angband, the Hells of Iron, in the North; and the tragedy of Turin and his sister Nienor unfolded within the shadow of the fear of Angband and the war waged by Morgoth against the lands and secret cities of the Elves. Their brief and passionate lives were dominated by the elemental hatred that Morgoth bore them as the children of Hurin, the man who had dared to defy and to scorn him to his face. Against them he sent his most formidable servant, Glaurung, a powerful spirit in the form of a huge wingless dragon of fire. Into this story of brutal conquest and flight, of forest hiding-places and pursuit, of resistance with lessening hope, the Dark Lord and the Dragon enter in direly articulate form. Sardonic and mocking, Glaurung manipulated the fates of Turin and Nienor by lies of diabolic cunning and guile, and the curse of Morgoth was fulfilled. The earliest versions of this story by J.R.R. Tolkien go back to the end of the First World War and the years that followed; but long afterwards, when The Lord of the Rings was finished, he wrote it anew and greatly enlarged it in complexities of motive and character: it became the dominant story in his later work on Middle-earth. But he could not bring it to a final and finished form. In this book Christopher Tolkien has constructed, after long study of the manuscripts, a coherent narrative without any editorial invention.

Some great stuff! War of the Worlds in one of the books on a challenge list for me so hopefully I get to it this year. I read The Picture of Dorian Gray many, many years ago but would love to revisit it - it's the first classic I can recall reading and enjoying. As for Tolkien - that is a must! You can check out my Monday here http://kyliesreads.blogspot.com.au/2014/03/its-monday-what-are-you-reading_10.html

I found The Picture of Dorian Gray to be an dark, disturbing but thought provoking read. I had previously seen the film before reading the book so I knew what to expect. I enjoyed both formats of story telling. Happy Reading!:-)Bits & Bobs

I am a young Christian woman seeking to do the will of God in all I say do and think. I love reading, crocheting, Doctor Who and drinking tea. Currently, I work as a nurse in a hospital. I'm recently married and loving it!